Poll: Public supports budget deal, or do they?

It seems hard to poll the public on something probably none of them understand. Interesting, a majority likes the deal, and majorities didn't want to cut the EPA or cut Planned Parenthood.  This reminds me of a Newsweek poll that showed the public disliked health care reform, but loved the individual details of health care reform.

When asked about Obama's plan (without being given any details about what the legislation includes), 49 percent opposed it and 40 percent were in favor. But after hearing key features of the legislation described, 48 percent supported the plan and 43 percent remained opposed.

The NEWSWEEK Poll asked respondents about eight health-care-reform provisions that Obama and many Democrats in Congress have generally supported. It found that the majority of Americans supported five of those provisions, three by particularly large margins. Eighty-one percent agreed with the creation of a new insurance marketplace, the exchange, for individual subscribers to compare plans and buy insurance at a competitive rate. Seventy-six percent thought health insurers should be required to cover anyone who applies, including those with preexisting conditions; and 75 percent agreed with requiring most businesses to offer health insurance to their employees, with incentives for small-business owners to do so.

Or a recent Pew poll in which 70% of Republicans supported cutting spending, until you got to specifics, then even Republicans didn't want to cut anything.

Budget cutting is a top priority for the GOP, with 70 percent of Republicans in a new survey by the Pew Research Center saying the federal government should focus on reducing the deficit, not new economic stimulus. And in many cases, more Republicans now support cuts than did so two years ago.

But across 18 areas of federal spending, a majority of Republicans support decreasing spending in just one: aid to the world's needy. In one other area, unemployment assistance, 50 percent of Republicans polled said they would decrease spending (far higher than the 11 percent who said they would increase it), but in all others the number saying funds should be cut is under the 50 percent mark.

The public likes the idea of cutting spending, and they like the idea of hating health care reform (both GOP talking points, mind you), but when you get to the specific, the public loves health care reform and they love government programs.  The trick is for Democrats to get through the GOP noise.  Or in the case of the budget deal, hope the public never gets wise to what you actually did (e.g., hurt growth and hurt employment).